Wichita eagle., 1887-10-22
ABUSE OF BABY TALK.
GIVE THE TODDLER A CHANCE TO
LEARN HIS MOTHER TONGUE.

Young America, Even In His Cradle, Has
His Rights - Endearing Epithets for
Baby Are Admissible. but Not Gibber-
ish and Jargon.
| often wonder il otherwise sensible people
realize not only how supremacy ridiculous
they make themselves, but what injustice
they do their children by deluging them with
that lingual dish wash, popularity known as
baby talk.
/ am well aware that i'll denouncing this
little luxury am flying in the face of public
opinion, or rather Of public practice, for l
doubt if opinion has much to do with the
matter. This is a free country. Life, lib
erty and the pursuit of happiness belong even
to the poorest, and you invade one OF man.
kinds most precious privileges when you as
sail the right OF the individual TO make an ass
of himself
But be 1t remembered that baby, toe, has
his rights. Young America, even in his
cradle has his constitutional guarantees.
Let them be respected. Give him chance
at his mother tongue. Don't defer his edu-
cation in order to indulge yourself in the
pleasures of adult idiocy. Don't demoralize
his ear for the sake of the satisfaction it
gives his Trim and severely proper maiden
aunt TO avail herself of her only legitimate
chance at billing and cooling. Let that esti-
mable spinster bill and coo by all means-if
not to lover, to baby; but in either case,
for the sake both Of the victim and the
language, let her do It without actual VIC.
lence to the vernacular.
Be the family rich or poor. high or hum
BILE, nothing is too good for his baby; and
such mangled and mutilatei fragments Of
language as fall 10 the lot Of the average in
nocent are not half good enough for him.
MoreoveI, they are an insult TO his lntelll-
gence No wonder the little stranger some
times surveys the family field with depre-
catory gaze Of dignified disgust that says
palmer than words, Have come into a
world Of utter idiotsG
Far be il from me TO enter protest against
dimnutives These have their uses. In GER
tain-and sometimes in uncertain-energen-
cies, they are priceless. In fact. there Is moth
Ing handler to have in the house. They are
very present help in time of trouble, a buffer
in DAVIS OF domestic vicissitude and danger.
Would YOU appease an angry sweetheart, cir
cumvcnt a cantakerous t'other half, pacify
an incenScd infant, the worth of the dl'ninu-
tive can scarcely be overestimated. 1t IS a
most Invaluable auxiliary of moral suasion.
But even in the shadow of your own lares
and perates, look to il that it does not get the
best of YOU Facilis est decensus Averni
There is no law of God or grammar TO pre-
vent your denominating the dog Il doggy, or
perSuasively appealing to pass as pussy
Baby itself is Il diminutive, and infinitely
sweeter ard dearer than its prototype. The
trouble is that when people begin taking lib
critics with language they don't know where
10 stop / merely and modestly file q caveat
against the further nlalt-eatiug of our mother
tongue by the multitude.
The odd thing is that the majority OF man
kind seem TO think there is n sort Of virtue III
torturing and twisting the language out Of oil
semblance OF symmetry and sense before ap-
nlving il to infantile uses. Milk for babies is all
right, ard has scriptural authority, but how
about skim milk: Possibly, genuine unadul-
terated, vigorous Angio-Saxon IS pretty
strong meat for fodder But, however
that may be, baby must learn 10 manage it
at least half way decently If you expect him
to be president OF the United States, and Of
course You do And how Is he ever going to
learn it if he never hears it7 1t is not only
counts: ard it is standing marvel that chill
dren ever speak correctly when You consider
the maugled and nlutilated condition Of the
language when they first make its acquaint
ance.
Call the little ones precious pets and rosy
posies" and pretty pearls" BY no means
abolish the one beauty of baby talk, its low
ingness. Administer every sweet and endear-
ing epithet YOU can lay your tongue to, but
don't let the good old English words degener-
ate into gibberiSh and jargon. Put your
caresses into your wholesome OF our New
England voices need them badly enough
and put not your trust i'll dropped or trans
mogrified consonants. 1t isn't so much what
YOU say rs the way you say il that matters.
Some of Milton's stately but Inelodious lines
would fall upon baby's tympanum with FAR
! sweeter and more soothing sound than the
senseless slop that is usually ladled out to him.
You might cali him parallelopipedon. and
provided YOU pronounced the polysyllable
torture of O'Connell's fish flag with caressing
softness, I'll be bound baby would like it bet
ter than your "pitty itty sings e'cstera, al
nauseam.
Baby talk per SO is all well enough its true
inwardness appeals TO everybody. | animad-
vert only upon its abuse and perversion by
the thoughtleSs. The truth l. ;hat baby talk
~as it is spoke" is Il luxury only indulged in
as c dissipation by the adu't, without regard
to the lemoraiizing effect II may have upon
the infant ear and tongue.
Most OF you who are addicted 20 t,ie prac-
! tice probably thinks baby likes it. But does
lie? Bless that little apostle of sweetness and
light, and ahate no iot or little Of his joys!
Give him pleasure in full measure, pressed
down ind running over. but why take it for
granted that this gratuitouS display OF idiocy
| delights bimi
Oh, We of little faith! Why insult baby by
presupposing him as big fool as Won are'-
Mary Norton Bradford in Boston Globe